Pop Art and politics: Richard Hamilton, 1922-2011

Photograph: John Reardon/The Guardian

I’ve never felt that I wanted to repeat something, because there’s an excitement in inventing things. Being creative is really a desire for this experience of finding something new. So it’s that newness that I’ve always looked for.

Transcript of the John Tusa Interview with Richard Hamilton, BBC Radio 3

Richard Hamilton, a key figure in the development of contemporary art, passed away last week at 89. In his obituary by William Grimes in The New York Times he is addressed as “a pioneering figure in Pop Art,” while in The Guardian Jonathan Jones calls him “the most influential British artist of the 20th century.”  Perhaps the best known work of Richard Hamilton in this respect is his interpretation of consumer culture in Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? This collage was created for the poster and catalogue of the landmark 1956 exhibition This is Tomorrow, and has been considered as one of the earliest and most influential works of Pop Art.

popartheaven.org

As Lawrence Alloway argues, Richard Hamilton was the only British artist who used Pop Art for political as well as satirical purposes (Lucy R. Lippard with contributions by Lawrence Alloway, Nicolas Calas, and Nancy Marmer, Pop Art, Oxford University Press, 1985). A characteristic example was Hugh Gaitskell as a Famous Monster of Filmland in 1964, which fused the picture of a Labour leader who refused to support nuclear disarmament, with an image of Claude Rains in the 1943 film Phantom of the Opera.  Richard Hamilton’s art continued to make political statements with regard to issues ranging from the shooting of students in Kent State University in 1970 to the Iraq War in 2003. These political works were the subject of the major exhibition Richard Hamilton: Modern Morals Matter at the Serpantine Gallery in 2010.

The 1983-84 installation Treatment Room is a case in point; the form of a hospital bed, suggested by the familiar elements of a pillow and a blanket, appears to be subjugated by an impersonal and rigid structure, which is characterized by the use of metal, and the incorporation of a television screen displaying a speech by Margaret Thatcher. The work effectively interprets the concept of Thatcherism within a context of institutional power, order, and control. And in this respect, Treatment Room is exemplary of the relationship between politics and aesthetics in Richard Hamilton’s work, as well as displays his use of different media.

 Serpentine Gallery